Mom’s Healthy Lifestyle Lowers Child’s Risk of Obesity

Children whose mothers stick to healthy lifestyle practices are less likely to be obese than children of less healthy moms, researchers report. Mothers have a powerful influence over their children’s lifestyle choices, but it’s unknown whether healthy lifestyle patterns in mothers influence the development of obesity in their children. Dr. Sun’s team used information from the Nurses’ Health Study II and Growing Up Today Study to clarify the association between the mother’s lifestyle during her offspring’s childhood and adolescence and their risk of obesity between the ages of 9 and 18 years. In particular, the researchers considered five low-risk lifestyle factors: healthy diet, body mass index in the normal range, not smoking, light to moderate alcohol consumption, and engaging in moderate or vigorous physical activity for at least 150 minutes per week. The risk of obesity in offspring decreased with each additional lifestyle factor in mothers, such that children of women who followed three low-risk behaviors (healthy diet, physical activity, and light to moderate alcohol consumption) were 23 percent less likely to be obese, compared with children whose mothers did not have any low-risk factor. Moms’ healthy lifestyles did not necessarily translate into children’s healthy lifestyles in this study, but when they did, offspring had an 82 percent lower risk of being obese, compared to when mothers and children had high-risk lifestyles.